


Blood Can Thicken Water If You Try Hard Enough

by Godspeed_Cowboy



Category: Naruto
Genre: ANBU - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anbu Hatake Kakashi, Anbu Yamato | Tenzou, Angst, Applying Textbook Theory, Awkward Conversations, Awkwardness, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Breaking Promises, Childhood, Childhood Memories, Childhood Trauma, Class Drills, Comedy, Concern, Crack, Dialogue Heavy, Distractions, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, Family Drama, Family Secrets, Flashbacks, Fluff, Gen, Haruno Mebuki is actually Uchiha Mebuki, Haruno Sakura & Yamanaka Ino Friendship, Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino are little shits, Haruno Sakura is So Done, Haruno Sakura is a Little Shit, Haruno Sakura will have issues soon, Haruno Sakura-centric, He'll get better, I think there's gonna be at least one dream in each chapter lmao, I'm Bad At Tagging, Icha Icha Series, In some parts that is, Kakashi more like Papashi, Let me know if I forgot something, Memories, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Haruno Sakura, Plans, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Hatake Kakashi, Protectiveness, Reincarnation, Sakura Is an Illegitimate Child, Sakura gets ~traumatized~, Sakura wants to be Sasuke's sister, Secrets, Sharing secrets, Sharingan, She's Trying Her Best, Siblings, Stealing, Strong Haruno Sakura, Trauma, Traumatized Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Massacre, Uchiha Sasuke Being an Asshole, Uchiha Sasuke Has Issues, Visions, Water Walking, abundance of spelling mistakes and POV switching, and maybe more because InoSaku is one of my favorite pairings, at one point maybe, children being stupid, drills, gettin up to no good, haha get it, he looks at team seven and just decides they're his kids now whoops, hopefully, i think, illegitimate child, insert jazz hands, it appears, it is heavily implied that Sakura used to be Izuna, just walking on shit you shouldn't in general, she just wants Sasuke to accept her as a sister, tragic events take place folks, tree walking, which is actually pretty damn good, yeah I'll go back to tagging regularly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:22:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25877371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Godspeed_Cowboy/pseuds/Godspeed_Cowboy
Summary: In which Sakura inherits her Mother's Clan's Legacy. This changes several things, and she is having trouble finding out if it's for the better or for the worst.
Relationships: Haruno Kizashi/Haruno Mebuki, Haruno Mebuki & Haruno Sakura, Haruno Sakura & Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Yamanaka Ino, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 41
Kudos: 264





	Blood Can Thicken Water If You Try Hard Enough

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah this is just a fun little idea! Enjoy!
> 
> Twitter: @YeehawMitski

When Sakura was five, her mother told her a secret. 

She remembers the exact day it happened. The sun was out and there weren’t many clouds in the sky. They were in the backyard of their home, her mother resting on their small, stone porch, her tea sitting on the little glass table in the shade of an umbrella. She wore one of her long dresses and sun hats today, both pretty shades of green. Sakura sat in grass near their garden, playing in the mud, little pink shoes abandoned by the old oak in the middle of the yard. She wore an atrociously colored frilly dress, like an abstract rainbow. Her mother did not reprimand her like she usually did. Instead, she stared into nothing. 

But Sakura was still naive then. She didn’t notice and kept playing in the filth.

“Sakura,” her mother calls, “baby, come here, please.”

And young Sakura thought, oh, this is it. Time for a lecture about the importance of not getting dirt everywhere. So she waddled over, leaving a trail of mud and twigs and leaves. Her mother smiled fondly when she made it over and picked her up, setting her in her lap. For a moment it confused Sakura, and then her mother spoke again.

“I have to tell you something, baby. Something serious and important.”

And that made Sakura look up at her mother with what she called her serious face. Her mother laughed lowly as she pulled a piece of paper from her sleeve. Her hand glowed for a moment and so did the paper before a bubble burst forth from it and sealed them inside. It amazed Sakura and for a moment she wondered if her mom could do magic. 

“So no one else can hear or see us,” her mother said.

“Sakura . . . Do you remember who the Uchiha are?”

A nod.

“Do you remember what they can do? What their clan has?”

After a few seconds, a hesitant shake, because there were a lot of clans with special stuff and she often mixed them up.

“Their eyes, Sakura. They have . . . _special_ eyes. _Magical_ eyes, even.”

A high pitched giggle, then, “This ain’t serious, Mommy! Ery’body knows that!”

“Oh I know that!” laughter from both of them as her mother tickled her.

“But, Sakura, there is a reason I’m telling you this. Can you look me in the eyes? Can you do that, baby? Be brave and look me in the eyes?”

And Sakura looked up into her mother’s eyes and watched in the shade of her hat and the curtain of dark hair as green _bled_ into bright red and black that spun slowly, three tomoe in each eye. And Sakura gasped.

Mommy has special eyes, she thinks with joy.

“Mommy! You have special eyes! Like Uchiha!”

Another laugh, “Because I used to be one, baby.”

“Used to?”

“Used to. I . . . _left_ the clan, to marry your father. Do you know why I’m sharing this secret with you?”

An enthusiastic shake this time.

“Because you might get the special eyes one day-”

“No way! So cool!”

“I wasn’t finished, baby!” and a sad smile crossed her mother’s face.

“You might get the eyes one day. And I’m so, so sorry, baby.” 

And then her mother pulled her into a tight hug, grabbing Sakura by her head and just held her to her close. Then Sakura felt something wet hit her shoulder. And she realized with that childish panic that her mother was crying. So she scrabbled to get a grip on her mother’s shoulders and hugged her just as tight.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry!” she yelled, making her mother’s ears ring no doubt.

And for a few minutes it’s all her mother does as she whispers “I’m sorry” into her daughter’s shoulder over and over.

Finally, her mother stops.

“Sakura?”

“Mommy?”

“You have to promise me something. Can you promise me something?” 

“Yeah! Anything for Mommy!”

“I need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this. You can’t tell the rest of your family except for me or Daddy. You can’t tell any of the kids at school or any of the teachers. You can’t even tell Ino.”

“I can’t tell Ino?”

“You can’t. And you _especially_ can’t tell any of the Uchiha. And if you _ever_ feel like _anything_ is wrong with your eyes, anywhere around them at all, then tell the teacher that you need to go to the nurse, the bathroom, _something,_ and come home to me. You might understand when you're older, but I hope that you never do. I hope you never get these special eyes.”

“Why?”

“I can’t tell you. But can you promise me this? Can you be a big, strong girl and promise me?” her mother’s smile was wet and strained but it looked so sincere. So Sakura took her mother’s hand, linked their pinkies, and smiled as bright as the sun with a nod.

“I promise I’ll never tell anyone! Not even Ino!”

Sakura regrets those words. Not because she didn’t like them, no. But because it was inevitable that that promise would be broken.

Sakura wished that her mother never told her about her stupid eyes.

She’s seven when the Uchiha Massacre happens, asleep when the sirens go off in the night. The day after, she finds her mother sitting at the kitchen table, bathrobe slipping around her as she stared into space like when she was five. The difference now was that it was worse, with a glassy look and trembling limbs. There were bags under her eyes and her coffee had gone cold as she muttered on and on about something Sakura couldn’t hear.

“Momma? Is everything okay?”

Her mother said nothing, she just kept muttering.

“Uh, well, I gotta go to school now, Momma! Iruka-sensei’s gonna bring in cookies today!”

And Sakura inched past her mother to get to the chair where her little blue backpack sat. She slung it over her shoulder and gave her mother a kiss on her arm before heading to the door. But then her mother’s arm shot out and yanked her back by the wrist. Sakura yelped in shock and pain.

“Momma? . . .”

Her mother’s grip tightened and her shaking became worse. Big tears fell from her eyes silently. Her mother’s cup spilled over. The only sound was the steady drip of coffee on the kitchen tiles. The grip was tighter.

“Momma, please let go. You’re hurting me!”

“Sakura . . . Sakura, I- something happened- I’m _so sorry_ \- Sakura-”

And her mother let go with a gasp. Sakura ran out the door, her own tears bubbling at the edge of her eyes. She ran all the way to school and didn’t stop until she collapsed in her seat. Her tears had dried up along the way. Her lungs hurt.

“Sakura-chan! Sakura-chan!”

Ino. Ino was there at her side, pale eyes filled with worry. 

“Sakura-chan? Are you ok?”

“ . . . Yeah. I’m ok.” 

“What happened?”

“I . . . I don’t know.”

Ino said nothing and just sat next to Sakura, holding her hand underneath the table. Iruka-sensei walked through the door a few minutes later, carrying bags of something, with a smile on his face.

Something was wrong. She squeezed Ino’s hand tighter. 

“Good morning, class! I brought in some extra treats for you today!”

The class cheered and Sakura cringed at the volume. Ino curled in closer. 

“Okay, before we can do _anything_ , though I gotta take roll.”

And so Iruka-sensei went through the list of children. Ino answered for Sakura when her name was called. Sakura did not miss the fact that Sasuke’s name was not announced. Something was definitely wrong.

Iruka-sensei pulled out the treats for the class. Chips, cookies, soda, donuts, candy, and more. He only promised cookies for today. Then he pulled out board games from under his desk. Something was horribly wrong, there had to be. Sakura got her share and went back to her seat. After she settled back with Ino, who grabbed some cards and played with Shikamaru and Choji, a masked person appeared at the door. She didn’t like the feel they gave off. 

While everyone else talked and played, Sakura watched as Iruka-sensei’s face became grave as he walked over to the masked figure. They stepped outside for a few moments. When Iruka-sensei came back, his face was a little paler. 

“Hey kids!” he called, “Unfortunately, we have a drill today!”

“Which drill, sensei?”

“Yeah, which one?”

The classroom erupted into complaints and questions. Iruka-sensei held his hands up.

“Calm down, calm down! We’re practicing the one about a hypothetical traitor.”

The classroom became quiet with confusion. They didn’t even know that drill existed. Iruka-sensei, bless him, explained.

“The scenario is basically a “what if” kind of thing. In this case, what if someone very dangerous was on the loose in the village? We don’t know if they’re hiding somewhere close or if they’ve left, so we have to play it safe. Because this is a drill, I ask that you don’t talk, but you can play quietly. Unfortunately, I have to go to a teacher’s meeting now, but don’t worry! Everyone, this is Cat-san!”

The same masked figure that Iruka-sensei stepped out with walked in. Their mask was obviously the origin of their name, a red, green, and white mask, with long brown hair and a sword strapped to them. Sakura shivered. The class answered in a chorus of “Hello Cat-san!” and “Hi Cat-san!” and every other variation.

“They will be in charge of the class. Think of them as a substitute. Remember, behave for them while I’m gone.”

And Iruka-sensei left. “Cat-san” finally spoke. 

“Hello everyone.”

She shivered. She didn’t like that voice. It was a man (she thinks?), and he gave her the heebie jeebies.

The class continued talking quietly then, ignoring Iruka-sensei’s instructions with Cat-san at the front, doing nothing, but Sakura could not relax. He looked almost out of place in the colorful classroom, all tough and stuff. He felt off. Then she felt something else.

Her eyes began to ache around the edges. Nothing drastic, just a little niggling that could have been easily ignored. But it was there and that was bad, she’d learned. She gasped.

She ripped her hand from Ino’s, ignoring her cry of surprise and a flurry of “Wait!” and rushed to Cat-san. He stiffened when she bumped into his legs but she rebounded, she had to.

“Cat-san! Cat-san! I have to go to the bathroom!”

He returned to his guarding posture.

“Is it an emergency?”

She nodded.

“Alright then. I will have to accompany you as the drill is still active. Try to be quick.”

This makes her panic a little more. She can’t get to Momma if she’s being followed dangit! But then again maybe she could hide until it went away? Yeah that could work!

“I have to go too!”

Oh, Ino. She forgot about Ino. This made her sweat a little.

“That’s fine. Let’s go then.”

And so they left the classroom, Ino marching loyally at her side and Cat-san trailing just behind. Cat-san stood out in the hallway when they walked into the bathroom. As soon as the door closed, Sakura ran to the nearest stall and collapsed over it’s toilet, crying. Crying because something was wrong with Momma, something was wrong with the adult’s behavior, and something was wrong with her eyes and she couldn’t _do_ anything!

“Sakura-chan! What’s wrong?”

“I’m okay-”

“You said that already! But something _is_ wrong, you’re crying, Sakura-chan! And you always run to the bathroom or the nurse and don’t come back for the rest of the day! I’m tired of you hurting alone like this! I’m worried about you, Sakura-chan!”

“ . . . Well . . .”

And Sakura knew she shouldn’t have said anything but she really thought Ino deserved to know. She’d danced around the question before, too many times to count. Ino deserved more than an answer.

“Ino?”

“Yeah, yes?”

“I need you to promise me something. Can you promise me something?”

“Of course!”

“I need you to promise that you’re not gonna tell anyone what I’m gonna tell you. I want you to keep a secret.”

A scoff, “I can promise that! What kind of friend would be if I shared everything you told me?”

“A bad one?”

“A bad one!”

Laughter from both children.

“Alright, well . . . do you remember what the Uchiha have? The special eyes?” 

“You mean the Sharingan?” 

“Yeah, that. My Momma . . . my Momma was one of them, she said.”

“Your Mom was an Uchiha? No way!”

“Yes way!” 

And Ino stood there with a glow of curiosity. She looked at Sakura like she hung the stars in the sky. 

“And,” Sakura continued, “she showed me her eyes. And she said I might get them to!” 

“No way! So cool!”

“I know! But . . . but then she said that she hoped I never got them . . . and she said I couldn’t tell anyone about it, about her and me. Said that I couldn’t tell you, that I couldn’t tell the Uchiha _especially_. Whatever that means. She said that if I felt anything around my eyes then I needed to make an excuse to sneak outta school and get to her.”

“Well, one, that’s selfish of her! You deserve special eyes! Two, you can trust me Sakura-chan. I would never tell what you don’t want me to say. And three, that means you can’t let the Uchiha know at all, no matter what! And finally, is that why you ran? ‘Cause your eyes felt funny?”

A nod and laughter again, to hold of silence. 

“So . . . you’re really an Uchiha?”

“I think? My Momma was one so I think that makes me one?”

“Oh my sage, Sakura-chan! You’re from a clan, like me! A noble one, to! We can be clan buddies!”

“We can?”

“We can!”

And then Ino grabbed Sakura by her hands and pulled her up, dancing with her around the dinky bathroom. They laughed as they jumped around. Ino pulled her in for a hug, a tight one, and Sakura hugged back. Thank the sage for Ino, she thinks. 

When they walk out, they walk hand in hand again. 

Someone stands next to Cat-san. 

Sakura chose to hide behind Ino and Ino chose to walk a little slower. The new person had a dog mask, silver hair, and a sword like Cat-san. They looked like they were talking before they saw the two girls. For a moment both parties just stare at each other. 

“Hello.”

It’s the dog masked person that spoke. Another man (?), like Cat-san, with his deep voice.

Ino had her best smile on, “Hello! Cat-san, who’s that?”

“Girls, meet Hound-san. They’re my . . . coworker. They’re _going to_ help me with the class. Of _children_.”

Cat-san turned his head towards Hound-san at that last bit and elbowed him. Hound-san just grumbled and pocketed away an atrociously orange colored book with a pretty lady on the front of it as Cat-san whispered at him to “put that disgusting, poor excuse of literature away, senpai”. Sakura’s gaze zeroed in on it. 

Now, Sakura, when it came to books, loved them almost as much as her family and Ino. She thrived in those imaginary worlds, loved the smell of the old pages and fading ink, lived for the endings that satisfied her knowledge. She read anything, always pushing herself to be able to read more and more. From her own children’s books to her Papa’s old dictionary she was still working on. 

Ino, early on, had learned of Sakura’s love for reading. And because Sakura was her friend, Ino wanted to make her happy, and that meant getting her hands on books her parents gave her and lending them to Sakura. Sometimes they snuck into the Yamanaka library, even though Ino was told that no one but fellow clansmen could walk within it. And if one thing was certain, it was that Ino would gladly obtain any book that caught Sakura’s interest.

Sakura looked at Ino, Ino looked at her. They nodded. Ino understood perfectly.

They began to plot as they went back to the class. Hound-san and Cat-san chattered quietly behind them, something about construction and dog statues. Sakura decided that she didn’t like how Hound-san felt off, Like Cat-san. They bolted back to their seats as soon as Cat-san opened the door for them and whispered furiously about their different plans, revising and adding and taking away certain details. Within five minutes, they had what they thought was the perfect plan. First, they had to find a victim. 

That victim just so happened to be Kiba.

The boy had his soda cup balanced dangerously at the edge of his desk, facing him as he chattered to Naruto. Ino and Sakura nodded at each other. It was time. Quickly, Ino pulled out a small eraser and one of her silly bands. Sakura’s job was to make sure the substitutes were distracted. She had a quickly scribbled picture of a dog, a tree, and a house. Not her best work, but it would do, she thought.

Sakura toddled quickly up to the substitutes, who were talking again, an argument about the book in Hound-san’s chest pocket. Perfect. She put on her best act. The act of adorable glee and excitement, the same look she gave Papa when they passed by the bookstore or the dango shop.

“Hound-san! Cat-san! Look what I made! Look!”

She thrust the paper out at them. Hound-san crouched down. Cat-san leaned over. She had their attention, perfect, perfect, perfect!

“What’s this, kiddo?” asked Hound-san.

“A drawing! See?”

And she began to point out different things. The tree, the apples in it, the flowers, the bush, the house and it’s colors included, and finally . . .

“And this is the dog i see everyday! I call him Momo!”

The dog captures Hound-san’s attention.

“What kind of dog is Momo? Do you know what his name means?”

“I don’t know, but he’s a _super_ big and _super_ fluffy dog, as you can see! And yeah! His name means peach!”

And there it was, the signal word. At the word “Peach”, Ino pulled the silly band back, eraser with it.

“It’s a very nice drawi-” Cat-san tried, but then there was a loud splash and a yowl.

Kiba sat in his seat, drenched in the sugary beverage. 

“I’ll be back, you keep showing Hound-san your . . . _masterpiece_.”

Cat-san rushed to help Kiba. Everything was going according to plan. And Sakura kept Hound-san distracted, chattering about the dog she saw everyday. She heard Cat-san fret about. It was time for Ino to step in. 

“I can help,” she said, using her “sweet girl” voice, “ I know where the paper towels are!”

“That would be nice, thank you.”

And she led Cat-san to the door, saying that the paper towels were in a broom closet. That was a lie, they were kept under Iruka-sensei’s desk. As soon as his hand touched the door, Sakura initiated the final step.

“Hound-san, come here, I have a _super duper secret_ secret to tell you!”

And he leaned closer as asked. The door slid open. She whispered in his ear, a cheeky grin on her face.

“Thank you.”

Her small hand grasped the book and yanked it out of the pocket. Sakura ran as she heard a thud and a “Hey!” and shoved Kiba out of the way. Ino ran after her, cackling, leaving a bewildered Cat-san in her wake and a confused, drenched child. Hound-san stumbled to the door and rubbed around his head. No doubt he’d fallen over.

“Senpai?”

“The brats stole my book!”

That sentence itself made Cat-san both mad and fearful. He grabbed Hound-san by his arm and ran top speed in the direction of giggling.

Sakura knew they would be in trouble if they got caught. But she and Ino had the upper-hand. The school was their domain, especially the new wing. They could hear footsteps behind them, not close but soon to be. They ran faster, with Sakura clutching the book to her chest. 

“Follow me, Sakura-chan! I know where to go! My school-skipping place is just ahead!”

And so Ino led them to an air vent, quickly opening it, crawling inside, and pulling Sakura after her. Quickly, they pulled the grate back over it and inched away far from it. Good timing, it seemed, when the source of the footsteps came right in front of them. They both held their breath, hands covering each other’s mouths.

“Where did they go? I just saw them turn a corner! Senpai, can you pick up their scent?”

“What, you think I could smell past all the junk food and school supplies back there? Mixed with sweaty brats?”

“Yes! Because you’re good at that! For Sage’s sake, it’s one of your specialties!”

“Well excuse me, asshole, not my fault I got dragged into watching kids with you. You were too scared of a pack of punks, afraid you’d either die of boredom or from their “excitable” chakra!”

He said the A-word! It got harder to hold their breaths. Sakura felt her face turning another shade.

“Oh shut it, you know I specialised in sensing! Too much chakra can overstimulate you if you aren’t accustomed to it! Not that you would know . . . And besides, you’d be just the same if you were stuck with _Umino’s_ class. Of all the classes the Hokage could’ve assigned me to, it just had to be that one . . .”

“That was Umino’s class?”

“ _”That was Umino’s class?”_ Yeah it was Umino’s class! What other fucking class would have kids like _that_ in it? Clan kids, kids with a bad streak, kids from troubled families, kids who just moved here, the sagedamned _jinchuuriki of Konoha_!”

“Oh shit.”

“”Oh shit” doesn’t even cover _half_ of how I felt back there. Now come on, we have to find those kids before they read that stupid book!”

“It’s not a stupid book, it’s a fine peice of literature that only the-”

“Whatever, just find the fucking kids, _dumbass_!”

And the feet disappeared, the footsteps fading with them. They waited five seconds 

before they gulped down air, faces fading from red to their normal hue. Five seconds passed. Ino bursted into a fit of stifled giggles. Sakura followed soon after. 

“Oh my sage, oh my sage!” whispered Ino, “We got away with it! They didn’t even see us!”

“We did! We did! Did you hear them say bad words? I did! We really did it!” 

More silent laughter. It died down, soon, and they were left breathless.

“Hey Ino?”

“Sakura?”

“What were they talking about? About our class. What did they mean about clan kids and jin-chur-eekee.”

“I don’t know. It’s probably not important if I haven’t heard of it, and Yamanakas know a lotta stuff.”

And Sakura trusted that. Now to the book.

“Okay. Anyways, let’s look at the book!”

Sakura flipped it over to read the title. Ino read it out slowly.

“Icha . . . Icha Paradise?”

The woman on the front was not as pretty as Sakura thought. Her front stuck out too far it looked like while her back looked the same. It looked like she stuffed pillows in that dress sucked in her belly, and it looked like someone took a red marker and outlined the body with it. Her hair was really long, her chin and forehead were small and so was her nose, and her lips and eyes were really big. It looked funny to both the young girls, who laughed at it.

“Why does she look like that?”

They flipped it over again to read the back. Ino read it out loud again.

“Young Tristan is on the hunt for a job. Luck seems to be running out for him when he’s finally offered a job as a delivery boy. Things take a turn when he runs into Elizabeth, a beautiful young woman on her way to fortune. Elizabeth thinks he’s rich like her when she sees him in a suit and accepts when he asks her to dinner. Follow Tristan as he dances along the path of life and dives head first into the throes of glorious, scandalous passion.”

That . . . was a summary. Sakura was starting to wonder if maybe Cat-san was right. But maybe the book was better than the summary? Maybe, she hoped.Summaries could often be misleading. She flipped it back over and opened the book. She never got past the table of contents before someone ripped the vent covering off and yanked them out by their feet. They screamed.

Hound-san held them upside down by their ankles as the book clattered to the floor. Cat-san stood in front. His mask wasn’t gone, but Sakura could practically feel how he felt. Some mix of relief and anger. Directed at them.

“You girls are in big trouble.” he said lowly. Sakura felt tears in her eyes. She didn’t like it when people were mad at her. Maybe that book wasn’t worth the trouble.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

Ino crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out. Sakura’s tears threatened to fall over.

“Any guesses? Any guesses at all?”

Ino glared at him and turned her head away with a snobby look. Sakura was the one to crack. Her sentence came out rushed.

“WestoleHound-san’sbookwe’rereallysorryaboutitIjustreallylikebooksandIwantedtoread‘causeIthoughtitlookednicesoImadeInohelpmeI’msorry _please_ don’tbemad!”

A sob racked her body and it was _loud_. Hound-san held her a little further away, awkwardly. Like he didn’t know what to do with a child or how to comfort one. Cat-san stilled. Ino looked betrayed.

“Well . . .” he said, “that’s . . . something. What’s your name, kid?”

“S-Sakura.”

“Well, Sakura, thank you for your honesty,” he took her out of Hound-san’s grip and held her on his hip, “but you still did something wrong. That means you have to be punished. You and your partner in crime here are going to write me a paragraph on why stealing other people’s things is bad and sit in corners for fifteen minutes.”

Sakura just nodded and tucked her face into his chest. Cat-san looked at Hound-san.

“What?”

“Senpai, do you even know how to hold a kid properly?”

A sigh, some rustling, “This better?”

“Well, the blood won’t be rushing to her head anymore. You tried, senpai.”

Hound-san held Ino under his arm like a football and his book was back in his pocket. Ino glared at her. Sakura did not look at her again as they made their way back to class. She could hear Ino squabbling with Hound-san behind them, with her insulting his book. It was funny to hear. Hound-san tried to say something about the punishment, about it not being strong enough, bit a strong glare from Cat-san kept him from talking about it again/

They dropped the two girls in front of the classroom door and pushed them inside. Eyes were on them for a split second before everyone went back to talking and playing. Sakura set to work right away on her paragraph. When she turned it in, Cat-san made her go sit in the back right corner of the room and sent Ino to the left when she finished her’s. When time was up, Sakura still sat in her corner and Ino didn’t talk to anyone else when she went back to her seat. 

The school day was over before they knew it. Hound-san and Cat-san stayed in the class as parents came by to pick up their children, whispering something to the parents that made them turn pale and straightened their spines. Inoichi came to pick up Ino, but before she left, she surprised Sakura with a hug and a short smile.

“I forgive you . . . Clan buddy.”

It was Papa that came to pick her up instead of Momma as usual. She caught some of Cat-san’s whispers.

“ . . . Still searching for him. Do not be alarmed when you see ANBU patrolling nearby. Lock your doors tonight and do not go outside unless stated otherwise.”

Papa’s face went pale and his spine straightened, just like everyone else, and he grabbed Sakura’s hand. Sakura let herself be tugged along, but not before giving messily wrapped napkin packages to the two substitutes and bowing with a rushed apology.

Inside were apology drawings and a donut. Hound-san got a better drawing of Momo and Cat-san got a pretty flower.

“Sweet kid,” Hound-san snorts, “she won’t last long in the business if she keeps it up.”

Three days later, after Momma and Papa locking all the doors and windows and not letting anyone leave the house or come inside, an official statement was released about the Uchiha, of all people. They were all gone. Sasuke was the only one left. And Itachi, well, he was the one to do it all. Sakura had met Itachi once or twice, he even helped her get something down from a tree once. He seemed nice, up until now. 

She told her Momma about the statement, and Momma said “I know, I saw it,” and then she sat Sakura down and showed her another secret that she could not tell. She explained a second level of her special eyes, something called the Mangekyo. Sakura watched as her Momma’s eyes turned red and black like when she was five. Then they turned into another pattern, one with diamonds and circles. Mamma told her that she can see glimpses of the bad futures soon to come.

Sakura promised not to tell, something she told herself she would keep this time. 

Sasuke came back to school three weeks later, and he was not the same. He was sad and quiet and angry yet he was only eight. Sakure decided that she would chase after him like Ino did, but not out of love. She would chase him because they were some form of kin and he had none of his own left but her and Momma. 

Later that day, she told Ino about her decision and Ino approved and supported her. Then she told Ino about her Momma’s eyes again and even drew the new pattern. She gave it to Ino, who stored it away in her little flower press book, where the rest of Sakura’s drawings sat with her flowers. 

Sakura is eleven now. She’s on a team with her “clansman” and the class clown and a lazy sensei who reads an oddly familiar orange book. In her pocket is a goodluck letter from Ino and her red ribbon wrapped around her wrist. They are at Wave, protecting a drunken bridge builder, Tazuna, she recalls, from a missing nin now. Zabuza, Demon of the Mist. Sakura knew this mission went to shit when they encountered the Demon Brothers. They should have never let Tazuna talk them into this.

Zabuza laughs as he traps Kakashi-sensei in a water prison. Fear penetrates the air as he tells them to run, that the water clone can’t follow. But they refuse. Sasuke and Naruto stand strong. Sakura stands in front of Tazuna with the same stance she learned in the academy. If she were to run, she thinks, then that water clone would slaughter her as soon as her back was turned. 

Naruto and Sasuke go flying and land to the ground in heaps. Sakura’s hands shake and there are tears in her eyes and she hated being such a crybaby, especially now.

“Look at that,” Zabuza drawls, “poor little Kunoichi, shaking in her boots!” 

He cackles again. Her grip on the kunai makes her knuckles turn white as Zaubuza raises his monstrous sword, one that is bigger than her body. Naruto and Sasuke stand again. Sakura’s eyes ache. She looks down and lets her tears fall as her boys take Zabuza down. Kakashi-sensei collapses as soon as a Hunter-nin collects Zabuza’s senbon pierced body, after the fight is over. She has a feeling that this will not be the last time they meet as they drag their sensei’s body back to Tazuna’s, the old man weeping like her. 

Kakashi wakes up three days later and explains to them that Zabuza was not dead and that the Hunter-nin was a fake. It makes her blood run cold that she was right. 

“The senbon did not pierce anything too vital, nothing to be fatal.”

“So you’re saying _he’s still out there_!?” shouts Naruto.

“Basically, yes.”

Sakura hated it when she was right sometimes. She hated it with a passion. Sasuke huffed next to her, muttering. She thinks back to her Mom this morning, who sat like when she was seven, only this time she was sleep talking, passed out in a chair.

She tries to hold his hand, to comfort him because it’s all so jarring, to learn how dangerous their mission actually is. As usual, Sasuke yanks his hand away at the slightest brush of her flesh against his and his face twists slightly into what could have been a sneer at her. She takes it, because it’s one of the only reactions she can draw from him and he is her brother, unknowingly. And she will comfort him to the best of their ability because that’s what family does for each other. 

“But don’t worry, my precious students,” Kakashi-sensei’s eye passes over them quickly and closes in that mimic of a smile, “I will make sure we’re prepared. Why don’t we practice something today, hm?”

“Kakashi-sensei, I don’t think you’re in the best condition to train,” says Sakura. 

Naruto nods and Sasuke hums in agreement. Kakashi ignores them, simply grabs his crutches and hobbles out of the room, students at his heels in seconds. Sakura waves to Tazuna and his daughter Tsunami and is the one to tell them where they’re going before running out the door after the rest of her team. Kakashi leads them to a clearing in the trees, a small forest it looks like.

“This place should work. Now, can anyone guess what we’re going to do?”

Silence, then, “No guesses? Boring. Anyways, today we’re going to learn how to climb a tree!”

They all stare at him like he grew a second head. Sakura did not trust the mischievous glint in his eye.

“But there’s a catch,” he says, of course there is, it’s Kakashi-sensei, “you can’t use your hands.”

“How are we supposed to climb without our hands?” asks Naruto, loud as ever and dramatic in his speech, over exaggerating curiosity and rage.

“I’ll show you!”

And they watched in shock as Kakashi-sensei climbed the tree with only his feet while he explained tree walking with chakra. He hands each of them one kunai, and tells them to pick a tree and mark where they climb so that they can improve. Naruto is the first to move. She can see how he applies too much chakra, and the bark explodes beneath his feet before he can take a step up. Sasuke follows. Something odd happens when his feet touch the tree. 

His eyes go wide for a second, his head twitches, and his feet slip from the tree gently, allowing a safe fall. When he touches the ground, he is back to normal. He looks at the tree like it is something familiar. Sakura wonders what happened. Did he see something? Hear something? Feel something? Either way, she could not dwell.

She finds a good tree nearby, strong with thick branches and pretty green leaves. It’s similar to the ones in Konoha, but certainly not as big and not the right color either. It’s far enough from the boys so that she can’t see them and visa versa but could hear her if she shouted. She takes a running start, and she applies the chakra to her feet the second they touch the trunk. Then she repeats what Sasuke did earlier, head twitching because she _does_ hear something. She falls in slow motion as she listens.

“Aniki! Help!”

And her back hits the ground with a loud thud. She stumbles to stand up again. Was someone in trouble? A kid maybe? No the voice sounded _a lot_ older than a kid. But still, it sounded scared. Someone needed help and she had to find them. She listens again. Nothing but the sound of the ocean in the distance and the cry of seagulls and the forest is as quiet as a mouse. She hears Naruto yelling at Sasuke. Sakura looks back at the tree.

She looks at the tree like it is an enemy. 

Sakura decides to move closer to the boys, finding a tree that’s situated besides Naruto’s. He’s going to put a hole through that tree if he doesn’t get it soon. Sasuke has also made very little progress, his marks nearly overlapping one another as they raise every so slightly. Kakashi-sensei looks bored. 

“No good trees over there, Sakura-chan?” asks Kakashi-sensei.

Sakura lies through her teeth as though she’s back in the academy, asking to go to the nurse for a “headache”.

“Yeah! For all the trees here you’d think you’d find a decent one!”

So she takes that running start again, and makes her feet stick to the tree with the little bit of chakra she has and runs. It’s not that difficult, she thinks. All she does is imagine her chakra and the tree’s as two threads and she ties them together in her mind, manifesting that knot in the form of matching the tree’s energy, almost like she’s a branch, because that’s what the textbooks said to do. For something so big, it doesn’t have much chakra at all. Settling on a branch and making her mark on the wood, she breathes, because holy hell that took a lot more effort than she thought.

The weirdest part though, was feeling the tree’s energy brush against hers, like it was a person. But the academy had taught her that that was to be expected the first few times before they got used to it. She didn’t like how it crept through her body, though, quicker than the kudzu vines that attempted to strangle the Hashirama trees in the summer, as though it was excited to meet her. It takes a moment for Kakashi-sensei to see it, see that she’s done now.

“Well, what a surprise! It seems that out of all of us, Sakura has the best chakra control! On her first try, to!” 

Well, no, but what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

He says it loud enough for the other two to hear, and both boys fix her with a jealous look. And Sakura knows just what Kakashi-sensei is doing. Using her as bait for the boys, to egg them on.

“You boys better work harder if you want to keep up!”

Sakura decides that she’s heard enough of that.

“Kakashi-sensei, shut up! You talk too much!”

Kakashi-sensei just laughs and goes back to watching the boys, leaving Sakura on her own. And, well, Sakura would never admit it out loud with her team around, but it makes her a little angry. And she doesn’t know why. But she does know that Sasuke and Naruto are not as good as her at this just yet, so she swallows her anger and lets Inner rage in her head.

“Cha! How dare he do this to us!? When I get my hands on him I’ll-” and Inner prattles on and on, threats directed at all three of them.

Sakura decides she’s had enough. Maybe she can go higher? So she attempts. It gets harder, she realises, because she doesn’t have good reserves and the closer she gets to the top, the thinner the tree gets. But she makes it. She balances on the top, with a little chakra still left in her and pride swelling in her chest. She did it! But now, she thinks, what else can I do?

So she gets back down on shaky legs and stalks past Kakashi-sensei, who gave her a pat on the head and told her she had the rest of the day off. And that doesn’t settle well, but she listens while Inner rants and rants about how sucky it was. 

When she walks into the house, Tsunami is in the kitchen, doing the dishes, and Tazuna is asleep on the couch with a child at his side. It could have been nice, if Tsunami wasn’t so tense and Tazuna didn’t have tear tracks on his face. The child bearly stirs as she walks past him. Tsunami notices her.

“Oh! Hello dear! What are you doing back so early?” 

“I got the rest of the day off and I don’t have anything to do, so I came back here. Is there anything you need help with?”

“Well, no, but thank you!” 

And Sakura sighs, until, “But, if you’re bored, there’s a lake nearby that you can check out!”

And Sakura takes that, because what does she have to lose? She listens as Tsunami gives her the directions and soon enough, Sakura finds herself at the lake’s edge, with Tsunami’s warning in her mind.

“Be careful, though . . . that lake isn’t known for kindness.”

There is a sign that hangs, rusted chains with white paint that chips from rotting wood. 

“Seireinomizūmi. . .” she reads. Lake of the spirits. Interesting, she thinks, interesting. The lake itself was ghostly under the grey skies of today, it’s water reflecting clouds and foggy from the animals stirring in it. But it is perfect for what she wants to practice.

Now, water-walking was something she knows that most shinobi read about in old school text books from the academy, and in theory it should be easy to execute, just like tree-walking had been for her. She’s read enough about it to understand it, has gathered from others how it felt to use chakra on a steady moving surface. She has all she needs, now she just has to use it. 

She walks across the rickety little dock that stretches into the lake, looking a little too long for a body of water so small. But she’s no experience in structures for water so maybe it just looks funny to her because she’s from Konoha, where it’s full of nothing but green instead of blue, dry there where it’s wet here, where in the place of earthy smells and sweet flower fragrances there is something fresh and salty and filled with a different kind of life. So she focuses on the water that comes closer as she nears the splintered dock edge. 

Her reflection stares back at her, though it looks more of a shadow. She finds that affect funny, how from far away you can see in that puddle like a mirror but as soon as you come close enough, it makes everything faded and dark. She likes to think that this is what Inner Sakura looks like. 

Slowly, Sakura breathes. A thread of excitement worms it’s way up her spine and, against her will, she smiles. This is a little like rebellion to her, as silly as it is. Kakashi-sensei hadn’t exactly said she couldn’t do this, but he never said he would teach it either. So maybe, just maybe, this entire display is part spite and part experiment because damn, if she didn’t love new knowledge.

Slowly, the sole of her sandal rests on the surface, and slower still she adds pressure, feeling the surface break beneath and cling to the sides. Too much pressure would send her under and too little would do the same. She shivers as the cold water tries to lap at her toes. 

Now for the harder part. Application of chakra physically and application of her knowledge to make it work.

She knows that her method of hit-and-run won’t work with this like it did with tree-walking. With tree-walking you had to be fast and you had to keep moving until you found leverage. Nothing like water-walking. Every book and every person says it’s best to start slow, because water is not solid, it is not filled with life like a tree is, and it’s chakra is more versatile. So she goes slower than she is.

Her own chakra climbs sluggishly out of her leg and drips down to her foot until it meets the water’s chakra. Just like the lake, it is cold, but it does not sit still. It flows slowly, and dare she say, curiously twisting around her chakra pathways, as though it were a living thing. She shivers, because they never talked much about water-walking in the academy or outside of it, only mentioned that it was different from tree-walking and taught them the basics before moving on, so she doesn’t know how to feel about this foreign thing in her body. 

But she has an objective so she powers through, and lets it chase out the last dredges of tree chakra that remained. 

It makes her feel cold inside, as if she had a fever. But it welcomes her nonetheless, albeit more calmly the tree. Slowly, she pushed her chakra past it, weaves around it so she can expel it from her chakra points and out into the ripples. It is a weird sensation, feeling it leave her body as it searches for purchase below. It’s almost like a glorified version of stilts. 

She finds the ground quickly after that, so this time she moves very slow, slower than before because she doesn’t want to mess this up, not when she’s so close, she puts more pressure onto her foot. It holds. She leans further until only her other foot rests on the dock. It holds. She smiles, bigger than before. She brings down the other foot and is quicker to repeat the process, and the water chills her quicker. 

She throws her hands up with a cheer. She did it! Inner howls with joy, using her rare phrase as a victory cry.

“We showed them! Shannaro!”

Her happiness is short lived when she feels the water’s chakra turn mischievous and smug, almost, which disturbs her because water should _not feel like a person_. The chakra breaks apart at her feet, and it disrupts her own. The surface breaks with a wet snap, and suddenly she is plunged into _ice_. She flails and sputters and freaks out for a moment before she gathers her bearings and breaks through and back into the world above, clinging to the leg of the dock, coughing because she wasn’t expecting water to go in her mouth mid-victory screech. 

The water’s chakra still flows through her, and it feels like it is laughing.

“Asshole . . .” she mutters. She swears the water _laughs harder_. Tsunami was right about this lake not being known for kindness, especially in her book now. She feels her eyes ache more out of irritation than anything.

Sakura drags herself onto the dock, and smiles again because hey, the water is weird and mean, but she _did it_ and she _will_ do it _again_ , lake be damned. She has some chakra left and it wouldn’t hurt to use it. 

Hours later, when she is near chakra exhaustion and full of chakra that isn’t hers to use and sopping wet like a cat, is when she heads back to the house. The sun set a while back and she can only see her silhouette in the water that is shaped by the stars above when she blocks them out, but the silhouette feels different somehow. Like it is both her and someone else. She trudges along the path through the trees who’s chakra she can feel reach out and prod curiously at her. Odd, she thinks, they weren’t like this in the day. But maybe that is normal?

Mud cakes to her shoes and she worries about the mess she’ll leave if she goes into the house with them. Said house comes into view soon enough and she nearly gives Tsunami a heart attack when she pulls the jammed door open too hard. 

“Oh my Kami! What happened to you, dear? You look like you walked through a sea storm!”

Sakura smiles at her through clinging bangs with a wink, “I went for a little dip at the lake!”

Tsunami then shoos her to the bathroom to clean up after she takes off her shoes and leaves her some extra clothes. Sakura practically sinks into the hot bath she draws and she can feel the lake’s chakra hum pleasantly. The shampoo and conditioner smell pleasant, like sandalwood and vanilla and the body wash is an artificial sea scent. 

When the water goes cold, she steps out. Her own chakra is coming back and the lake’s chakra lays flat, still now. It’s refreshing to have a break from it. The clothes are comfortable and cotton, and they almost remind her of what the girl from “Spirited Away” wore, ribbon and all. The only difference was that this one was black where there was pink and blue where there was white. She ties the sleeves back and admires her handy work in the mirror. She uses Ino’s ribbon to tie her hair high up to complete the look, even poses in front of the mirror.

Stepping out, she smells dinner from the kitchen and hears Naruto and a higher voice yelling, Kakashi-sensei giggling with Tsunami, and Sasuke sighing with Tazuna. The scene she walks into is almost heartwarming. Tonight is grilled fish with rice and miso soup, as it has been for the past few days. 

“Ah, hello, dear!” say Tsunami, the first to notice her. Everyone else greets her quickly before stuffing their faces again and chattering.

“Hello Tsunami-san. Dinner looks good. Smells good too.” she says as she slides into the empty seat between the woman and child.

“I’m glad! Here,” she passes Sakura a plate, “help yourself! I made extra tonight, I know you kids have been out training all day.”

“Thank you.”

“What’s this? Is my precious student not wearing her favorite little dress?”

Sakura rolls her eyes at her sensei’s teasing.

“Nope,” she says, popping the “p”, “my other clothes got soaked so I’ll have to wash them tomorrow.”

“But it didn’t rain today?” says Naruto, confused.

“There’s more ways to get water logged than rain, idiot.” retorts Sasuke, cool as ever.

Sakura hides her snort behind her hand as Tsunami speaks for her.

“Sakura went out to the lake today!”

“The lake? _That_ lake?” asks Tazuna, “girl’s got some nerve.”

“Yes that lake! When she came back she was wetter than a used towel!”

“Mom can I go to the lake too?” asks the child.

“No, Inari, you’re too young.”

The child, who has a name now, Inari, slumps into his chair.

“Ne, ne! What’s so bad about a lake?” asks Naruto.

Tsunami launches into a story.

“The lake of spirits! Many people say it’s haunted by the ghosts of the people who drowned in it, and those who often go in never come back out, becoming angry spirits themselves and repeating the cycle. It’s one of Wave’s biggest local legends.”

“But Sakura-chan is here!”

“Like I said, many people say it. But that doesn’t mean it’s true!”

“Did she get pushed in or something?” asks Sasuke.

Tsunami shrugs, because Sakura hadn’t answered that one, “Just said she took a dip in the lake.”

Sakura smiles cheekily at the odd glances they sent her. She’d tell Kakashi-sensei about her victory later, but for now she keeps her silence about it, Sasuke and Naruto returning to their food and arguing. Kakashi-sensei sighs. She laughs with Tsunami and Inari about a joke that Tazuna said. If she tried, she could forget that she was on a misranked mission.

But the thought of Zabuza and his blade was a persistent one in the back of her head.

It is after dinner ends when she approaches Kakashi-sensei. Her other teammates are passed out in their little room and Tazuna’s family has retired for the night as well. Kakashi-sensei is getting ready for bed, removing his headband and keeping his hidden eye shut. Only a few days ago she saw what was beneath his scared eyelid. One sharingan eye that scared her because last time she checked, his last name was Hatake and not Uchiha. 

“Ah, Sakura-chan,” he says with a laugh, “you should be in bed by now!” 

She smiles, “I know, I know, but I gotta tell you what I did today! At the lake!”

“Well now I’m scared. What trouble did you get into, my precious student?”

“I practiced water-walking!”

Kakashi-sensei’s head snaps to her and his open eye widens as his brow furrows.

“You _what_?”

She falters at his tone. It sounds upset.

“I practiced water-walking,” she repeats, slower.

“ . . . Without supervision? Without instruction?”

She stays quiet and he sighs.

“While that sounds impressive, Sakura, I really wished you hadn’t done that. Something could have happened. You could have drowned-don’t give me that look, just because you can swim doesn’t mean it’ll save you if you fall without warning-you could have damaged your chakra pathways, you could have _hurt_ yourself, Sakura. And you were _alone_.”

She stays quiet and again he sighs.

“I’ll let it go, just this once, _don’t look at me like that_. Next time you want to practice something, _let me know_. I’m your sensei, Sakura, it’s my _job_ to teach you things you want and need to know.”

He ruffles her hair and moves past her into the bedroom, sliding onto his futon. Sakura stares at him in the dark. If it’s your job to teach me, she thinks, remembering how he sent her off after she learned to walk up the tree, then you’re not doing too good. Besides, he should be proud! She mastered water-walking on her own! Well, not mastered, but still! 

Oh, but she stops herself there, because that’s Inner starting to speak. 

So instead she goes to the room she shares with Sasuke tonight, much to his disdain earlier, and sits on her futon as she brushes her hair with her little plastic brush as she ties the ribbon back to her wrist. Sasuke is fast asleep across from her, snoring slightly. She sighs and just. Stares at him. 

Sasuke has always been a puzzle to her since she made her one-sided promise years ago. He pushed so many, too many, people away in his youth. And now he just seems. Well. He seems lonely, sad, angry, and, this one was a longshot but just maybe, vulnerable. She knows he’s not cold, she’s seen his kindness before, and he’s not cruel, she’s seen how quick he kills animals. The problem was that he wouldn’t let anyone in. Sakura’s been trying for years and those walls of his were staying up until they got taken down.

Sakura settles under her blanket, tracing it’s patterns of blue waves and white seafoam with orange, red, and golden fish. 

“Goodnight, Sasuke-kun.” she whispers, and she knows he does not hear her. 

She falls asleep to easy breaths and the sound of a forest and a sea just beyond the window.

She wakes up when it is still dark out, and she feels . . . weird. It’s like when the trees’ and the lake’s chakra were in her. But this isn’t something that comes into her willingly or camly for that matter. It feels panicked, paranoid, jittery. And It doesn’t seem to realise that it’s in her. It feels like it doesn’t even know she knows it’s there at all. It feels like an infection. 

She turns her head, vision blurry from sleep still and sees a figure. Said figure looks like it’s sitting up. She blinks and rubs her eyes until finally she can see clearly.

“Sasuke-kun?” she asks, quiet and scratchy. 

Sasuke doesn’t answer. His back is rigid and he stares straight ahead. It’s too similar to Mom. 

“Sasuke-kun? Are you ok?” she asks, this time more awake.

No answer. She sits up and looks at him. Slowly, she crawls over until she’s at the edge of his futon. Now closer, Sakura can hear his uneven breath, see his shoulders tremble slightly. She’s taken back to the fight with Zabuza, killing intent suffocating and oppressing enough to make even Sasuke shake like a leaf. Then Kakashi whipped out his Sharingan and that made them all freeze a little. 

Then she is taken back to all the times her Mom spaced out, how sometimes Sakura began to fear if Mom was still alive because of how long she’d been sitting like that, how her eyes were glazed over. How Dad always had to bring Mom back to earth, leading her to bed early and telling Sakura she just needed some time before she was better. 

Sakura shakes her head. Sasuke is not Mom and he is not the Sasuke during the Zabuza fight. There’s no clue what will happen if she touches him but she takes her chance. She places a hand on his shoulder, gently.

“Sasuke-”

All in a second, hands grab at her shoulders roughly before tossing her into the air, head hitting the ceiling and back hitting the wall with a thud, before she slumps down one her back with a pained grunt. Then there is a weight on her waist and something cold and sharp is pressed against her throat. That infectious feeling pulses through the air, and she thinks it even stirs up a little dirt and dust, and turns into something hateful and angry and scared and sad. She stares up at two red eyes instead of black. Sasuke. He’s straddling her and pressing a kunai to her throat, sharingan whirling. Neither move, Sakura because if she does then that kunai will draw blood and Sasuke because his sight still isn’t clear and he doesn’t see her. 

For several minutes, there is only heavy, trembling breathing. Sasuke’s eyes fade from spinning red to familiar coal black. He’s still out of it, though, and it shows.

“Sakura . . .?” he whispers, and he sounds disoriented and tired.

Finally, recognition. She takes the chance.

“. . .Sasuke-kun. Hi. What are you doing up so late?”

He looks confused, eyes squinting.

“I . . . don’t know.”

She slides out from under and kneels in front of him, hands placed on both his shoulders this time. He does not attack. The feeling turns again, looses its anger and fear and hate. Now it’s almost like Sasuke, confused and tired, but it’s mixed with something sad and something curious. She guides him to stand and takes the kunai out of his hand.

“Come on, Sasuke-kun, let’s get you back to bed.”

“Okay . . .Okay . . .”

She leads him back to his futon, pushes him back under his blanket, patterned with warmly colored hawks and a sun, and puts his pillow under his head.

“Sleep tight . . . brother.”

He says nothing, just closes his eyes

She returns under her blanket, putting the kunai next to her, and she doesn’t go back to sleep until she hears that soft breathing again. The feeling goes flat and, oh, how relaxing that is.

She passes back out, still tired even when getting thrown into a wall, and hopes there’ll be no bruises.

_There’s a blur covering everything, like she has bad eyesight. She can’t make out much at all through it, save for the sky and the ground, which are easy to tell apart. The sun is either rising or setting, because everything is covered in a golden light, and the sky is a gradient of yellow and deep, dark, blue. There’s panting, the sound of running, and she realizes that it’s coming from her. She’s running, though she isn’t sure why._

_Something dry brushes against her arm-tall grass, dead maybe? It’s brown so probably-and then laughter follows her. Happy laughter. And she answers with her own, though it doesn’t sound . . . right? Like her? It sounds too young. Strands of black float into her vision-hair? Her hair?-and sweat runs down her back. More laughing, then-_

_“Aniki! Aniki!”_

_It takes a moment to register that it’s her voice saying that. And then she crashes into someone else. They’re taller than her, with dark hair, and plain clothes, but she can’t make out anything else. They tumble to the ground, limbs tangled and shrieking with joy._

_“What?” laughs the other-an older boy?-”What?”_

_“You’re back! I missed you!”_

_A hand ruffles her hair._

_“I missed you, too, Otouto.”_

She’s woken up by a screaming Naruto throwing open the bedroom door. 

“Wake up or else you won’t get any breakfast!” he laughs, darting down the hall at top speed.

Sasuke gets up immediately, as though he wasn’t tired at all, and runs after Naruto, determined to be first. Sakura has to use a bit more work, still groggy from, well, everything. She stumbles to the bathroom first, does what she has to do and brushes hair and teeth and wakes herself up, before stumbling out to the kitchen. The boys are already there, eating competitively like they have been for the past few days. 

Kakashi-sensei is nursing a cup of coffee with Tazuna and Tsunami. Inari looks like he’s going to fall face-first into his food. A normal morning, as far as she’s concerned.

“Good morning, dear . . .”

“Good morning, Tsunami-san.”

They talk as they eat, about the weather, what they planned today, dreams they had last night. Then Kakashi-sensei says something that makes her nervous.

“Oh, last night I heard a really loud ‘thump’. Did any of you hear it too?”

“Yeah! I told gramps but he said he didn’t hear a thing!”

“Sakura, did you hear it?”

Everyone at the table is looking at her. She lies.

“No. I slept like a log last night.”

“Sasuke?”

“No.”

Ah, so either he’s lying to or he doesn’t remember. Kakashi-sensei eyes them for a second before returning to whatever he was talking about before, leaving Sakura to stir in her nerves. Was he going to ask about it later? She couldn’t just say that Sasuke threw her across the room. Would he leave it? She hopes so, desperately. Does Sasuke remember? 

Sakura is given another set of clothes after breakfast, this time brown replacing black and blue becoming earthy green and again she ties up her hair with the red ribbon. 

A knock interupts her, and Sasuke pushes the door open with no warning.

“Sasuke-kun! Wh-”

“It didn’t happen.”

“What?” she says out loud, but inside she thinks, ah, so he remembers?

“Last night. It didn’t happen.”

There is tense silence between them, and Sasuke is glaring at her like she insulted his dead grandmother. Slowly, she nods.

“Okay. We won’t talk about it. It never happened.”

“Hn.”

He walks away with his shoulder hunched, the bathroom door wide open. Sakura looks at the spot he stood in and sighs.

She walks to Kakashi-sensei with a fake smile and takes today’s chores without complaint. The kunai from last night is gone when she goes to pick up the room and in its place is her old clothes, clean and dry. She fails to remember her dream from last night, it probably didn’t matter anyway if she doesn’t remember.

It has been two days. Two days since then, two days of strained conversation with Sasuke, two days of Kakashi-sensei being suspicious, two days of an oblivious and loud Naruto, and Sakura has been dealing with it just fine thank you, even with Inner raging in her head. In those past two days, she “re-learned” water-walkin, was taught tips and tricks for fighting that were downright dirty ways to play, and learned new stances for taijutsu and kenjutsu, all with her teammates at her side. 

“Hello Kakashi-sensei!”

“Sakura! Good morning! Are you ready for today’s job?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be!”

Today, she goes with Tazuna to the bridge. She wears her old clothes, apologizing to Tsunami about the trouble, who insists that it was really no trouble. Sakura keeps apologizing anyway. 

This is the first time Sakura leaves the house, the first time she gets to see the village here. Part of her is excited to see something new, something that isn’t green trees, blue skies, and beige and yellow gate walls. But there is another part of her that worries, worries from what she’s heard about it. Naruto had said the whole place was like his apartment, run down and dirty, Sasuke had mentioned how little food there was, and Kakashi-sensei whispered with the other adults about the health concerns that were piling up each day. 

But she supposes she will find out soon. She walks besides Tazuna on a small path, skies clouded like they have been for the past week, as they had lived a little ways outside their village. The man was a fast walker, surprisingly. She tries to start conversations with him, but falls flat each time, unsure of how to respond to his sarcastic and darkly humored responses. He didn’t need his alcohol to sound like this, it seemed. 

“Welcome to Wave, kid.” he says as they arrive. 

The town is definitely worse in person, and the depressive atmosphere is suffocating. Wherever she turns, there are stick thin and sick people, dirty children dart through her legs and brush against the skin of her arms, people beg for food and water instead of money. It does not disgust her, no, but it makes her so very _sad_. It makes her feel _strongly_ , and an ache grows behind her eyes. She does her best to ignore everything and clutches the frayed strings of the red ribbon that’s back on her wrist tightly.

She ignores the wails of people in pain, ignores the fighting of supplies that happens one food stall over, ignores the crying baby that’s without a doubt starving. 

The store they walk into could hardly be called a store at all. There are few people inside, and the cashier looks so tired. The shelves are hardly filled, and the weeping vegetables are sad excuses for stock, alongside the small, soon-to-be-rotting pieces of meat there is. The medical supplies are worse, with almost nothing there at all, just empty boxes and scraps of papers. There is dust and dirt everywhere, and she leaves a trail of footprints behind with the few others there are. 

It makes her want to cry, cry for these people who have so little. Tazuna glances worriedly at her. 

“You ok, kid? You look like you’re gonna cry.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she says with wet eyes. Mama did say she had an Uchiha heart, after all. 

“Alright, whatever you say . . . “

They leave the store soon after, two bags in tow and one filled only half way, one in her arms and the other in Tazuna’s. People on the streets look at them with envy and hope. 

As she walks, she feels something grab at her back pocket, and she whips around with her free hand. The man trying to pickpocket her looks frightened. Tazuna doesn’t stop walking.

She gives the man what little money she has before running.

The small cheer she hears brings warmth to her heart and she decides it was worth it.

Sakura’s day is not over yet. After they drop off the groceries for the boys to pack away, she walks with Tazuna to his bridge. Kakashi-sensei told her it was her turn to guard the man today. Naruto complained about the chores he had to do loudly and he was still doing it when they came back. Sasuke grumbled quietly. 

The walk to the bridge was no different from walking to get groceries. The only difference is that she doesn’t try to start a conversation and no one tries to rob her. 

They arrive at the bridge.

“Welcome to Wave’s biggest bridge yet, literally and figuratively.” he says.

The bridge was _huge_ , with winding designs along its path and rails meant to represent waves, spotted with painted sea creatures. It was gorgeous and she makes sure it’s no secret kept.

“This is gorgeous,” she says, “it must’ve taken forever!”

Tazuna snorts, “Sure _felt_ like forever.”

They both share a chuckle. 

Tazuna is pulled away by the work and blueprints that await him. She watches from the side like she’s supposed to.

About ten minutes in, boredom washes over her. She taps her fingers on the stone of the bridge, bounces her leg, even hums a little tune, yet it does not quell her. 

And then an idea hits her. Inner delivers it with all the grace she can, which isn’t much but she’s grateful for it anyway.

She looks for Tazuna, finding him quickly, dealing out orders left and right. 

“Tazuna-san, is it alright if I practice wall-walking while you’re busy?” 

“Go ahead, kid. I saw you over there fidgeting. Go and get rid of that extra energy. ‘S good for kids your age. I’ll let you know if I need ‘nything.”

“Thank you, Tazuna-san!”

“Cha! Yes, yes, yes, yes!” chants Inner, and Sakura smiles.

She peers over the edge of the bridge into the light mist below. Sandy beach meets water here, and it is gentle waves which splash against the not-too-big-but-not-too-little black rocks. The part where she’s at is perfect for what she wants to do, not too low so she wouldn’t look a fool, but not too high to injure her should she fall. She breathes in and out. Kakashi-sensei _might_ get _pissed_ , but only if he found out _at_ _all_.

Just like tree-walking and water-walking, she’d read about wall-walking and was different just the same. With wall-walking, you had to get used to all sorts of materials. Stone, wood, plastic, plaster, insulation, and every other material used to make walls what they were. It was difficult because you had no choice but to be prepared to adjust to the change in said-materials should it happen. 

She just so happened to get lucky, however. She’d read that stone was the easiest to learn on. And the bridge was made of stone everywhere, with little else to hold it. She breathes in and out deeper. 

Slowly, she stands up on the edge. She hears a few panicked sounds behind her, but then Tazuna speaks and assures them, _she’s a shinobi_ , _let her train_. She looks down again. The waves move steady. She extends her chakra down slowly first, because it might be like water. She is surprised when her chakra meets something lively, bright. So maybe like a tree?

She forces the chakra out of her legs faster. The stone’s chakra rises quickly to meet her own, curious and excited and wary and happy. It reminds her of Naruto’s dramatic mood changes.

Maybe it was the paintings that made it like this? They were bright after all. And it was next to the sea, and the water was a little bit of a jackass to her last time. 

She extends her chakra just a little further into the stone, just enough to anchor her. It returns in kind, reaching up into her body. It’s like they were studying each other. It is strange, she thinks, how something that isn’t sentient behaves so much like a person in everyday life. She should stop being surprised and start expecting it when she practices anything with chakra.

She breathes in and out normally again, lifts a foot. The stone’s chakra grapples at it, wondering where she’s going, it feels like. 

She falls over the edge quickly, startled gasps behind her. The stone chakra startles and it rushes to get a hold of her feet again. It’s filled with a little anger, a little wonder, and a little bit of something that makes it feel like it’s asking “really?” But what matters to her more is the fact that, with her body turned towards the sea, the horizon is parallel to her.

“I did it,” she whispers.

“I did it!” shouts Inner.

‘You did it!’ the chakra of the stone cheers, though it has no lips to speak with, she feels it.

“But the real question is . . . can I walk?” she asks.

It gets a little harder from there. It’s like planking, not one of her strong points and it shows. Plus she has to move, so that just adds to it. It makes her break a sweat. Tree-walking seemed easier, but maybe it was because she ran up the tree instead of walking. She’d work on that later, along with everything else. But she at least figures out that yes, she _can_ walk, though it’s in small and stuttering steps, but hey, it’s progress.

She decides to come back up on the bridge. It takes a hot minute, but she’s able to squat and grab at the edge of the rail and pull herself back up. She sits on the ground when she gets up there, the skin of her face red, her breath short and panting, and sweaty as ever. and the hot and humid air doesn’t help. She wishes they could do this in spring or fall instead of summer. The muscles of her stomach are already starting to ache. 

She has the hang of it, but the problem is that she hasn’t mastered it. She’ll have to work on her core strength.

A bottle of water is placed next to her. She looks up. A tree of a man stands there, sun tanned skin, thick dark hair, and a beard to match. Two brown eyes look at her from under two thick brows. He nods at her before returning to his work, lifting bags of cement.

“Thank you!” she calls out weakly. 

Talking can wait. There’s a water bottle with her name on it.

It’s gone in seconds, some dribbling down her chin. Maybe she should have brought water with her, she thinks, a little embarrassed. Lazily, she turns her head to the man who gave her the bottle. 

He’s big, bigger than a lot of people she’s seen, but not the biggest. Hm, maybe she could get that big one day? Oh that’d be so cool!

Her thoughts stop when a sudden fog rolls in. Her heart drops into her stomach as her face pales and she begins to shake and the bottle falls from her hand, spilling onto the bridge. She knows this reaction. The reaction to _killing intent_. 

Someone is here, someone unwelcomed. 

A laugh echos throughout the fog, deep, and she swallows. Screaming follows. A body bumps into her and she almost screams herself, but is rather relieved when she sees it’s only Tazuna. Wait. Wait!

 _Shit_! Tazuna! The mission!

She pulls herself together, grabs a kunai from her weapon pouch, and she settles into a basic stance, one made for protection. Two figures appear through the mist, a few meters away from them.

. . . The hunter nin . . . and . . .

“ _Zabuza_ ,” she breathes, and her hands begin to sweat.

An ache settles behind her eyes. 

The Demon of The Mist hums, and she can see him clearly now. And . . . he’s looking past them? She’s confused by that until he speaks.

“Ah. Hello again, Hatake.”

She startles, “Kakashi-!?”

“Maah, was I that obvious?”

Footsteps from behind, and suddenly Kakashi-sensei is there, beside them, Sasuke just behind. Kakashi-sensei sends her an eye smile as he rolls up his sleeves.

“Sakura, stay here, alright? Your job is to protect Tazuna. Sasuke, stay with them unless Zabuza’s kid comes after you.”

Sasuke looks like he wants to disagree, face pinched, but he stays silent. It earns him a pat on the head. It makes the boy disgruntled. Sakura would’ve found it cute had they not been standing in front of a wanted criminal. 

Kakashi-sensei’s face turns serious as he lifts his headband, and it still makes her and Sasuke’s breaths hitch, because he _really_ shouldn't have that, but they won’t question why he does. She’ll get an answer one day.

And then the older man runs towards the threat, and everything from there is a blur, the ache in her eyes slowly growing as she watches Sasuke engage with the apprentice. At one point Naruto shows up. Then there’s an ice mirror cage.

And then suddenly it isn’t a blur anymore.

It happens in slow motion, a coincidence, looking in the right place at the right time. 

She watches as Sasuke is pierced with senbon, both him and Naruto screaming, features changing, looking like a pin cushion. The kunai falls from her hand.

And the ache behind her eyes explodes, her vision going white, and she screams louder than they ever could. 

Time passes quickly then, as she’s collapsed on the ground, her hands covering her face.

The apprentice, Haku, she learns, dies. Sasuke is still alive. An army appears. Zabuza takes them down with him. The ache fades from her eyes until it isn’t there anymore, and she knows she can take her hands off finally. They collect the bodies, bury them, and head back to home base, where Tsunami and Tazuna and Inari collide together and cry in the middle of their living room. Sasuke and Naruto head to their bedrooms, probably to start packing. Kakashi-sensei disappears in a puff of smoke.

Sakura marches to the bathroom. 

The door shuts and locks with a click as her hands shake. Her hands brace the sink as she leans towards the mirror, frowning. She breathes in. Her mother’s prepared her for this.

Slowly, she calls upon her chakra, forcing it through her head. It hurts, but she does it, and then she forces it to her eyes.

She keeps them wide open.

Slowly, green turns to red, outlined by black. There, in her right eye. A singular tomoe spins lazily. She breathes out, shakily, her heartbeat speeding up, the tomeo beginning to spin faster.

Haruno Sakura has awakened her Sharingan, and there’s no going back now. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'll probably post more chapters for this if you guys want. Let me know what you think!


End file.
